Your company’s website is a real-time lead generator and the single most important sales funnel at your disposal. Your website should clearly define your company’s capabilities, educate them on the strengths of your product and service offerings, while engaging them with relevant content. If executed properly, your website’s “call to action” will incentivize customers to move forward with a purchase. Here are four critical areas that define good websites.

Usability

How long does it take your website to load? The longer it takes, the less likely your customer will stay, and having a high bounce rate on your website is bad for its PageRank. Ultimately, you want a seamless website where page loading time is maximized. The goal is to prioritize the most important content above the fold so that customers immediately see what your company is about and what it has to offer.

White Space and Appearance

Have you ever visited a cluttered and confusing website, one where you had little to no idea what the company was offering, or what message they were trying to convey? If so, then that’s exactly the type of website you want to avoid. Make sure your site is visually appealing without being confusing and cluttered. Your customers need to see a website that is laid out in a professional and welcoming manner, one where colors are clear, text is easily read and the images and graphics on your website are relevant to your company’s message.

Content

Engaging content doesn’t simply include the written word. It also includes using product images, insightful product descriptions and thought-provoking videos that clearly define your company’s value proposition. In order to minimize page load times, be sure to optimize images by enabling compression and focus on clearly distinguishable navigation links, like those on a site like Klosterman Baking Company, that are in text and are written in HTML formatting.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In today’s interconnected business world, either your company adopts solid SEO strategies or you’ll lose business. Everything in today’s online world is keyword-driven. However, it’s not simply a matter of inundating your website with the same keyword over and over again. Instead, it’s about adopting simple and straightforward keywords and keyword phrases, all properly placed on your website and incorporated throughout your online advertising campaigns.

When it comes to thinking about how important it is to have a good website, think first about your customers and their experience. How are they experiencing your site? Have you optimized that site in order to make it easier for your customers to find you and move forward with a purchase? If you focus on answering these aforementioned questions, then you’ll be that much closer to the website your company needs and your customers want.